Become an approved sponsor
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Make sure your company is an approved sponsor. Do this now so that you’re ready when that dream candidate comes along who needs sponsorship.
We recently went through the process of having Lookahead Search approved to sponsor, even though we don’t need to sponsor right now. The process took 12 weeks and was easy because we had help. We weren’t in a hurry because we started proactively.
Now that we’re approved we’ll wait 6-8 weeks for nomination when we find someone. That’s not fast, but we’ll deal.
Had we not been proactive it’d have been 10-12 weeks to become an approved sponsor, then another 6-8 weeks for nomination. That sort of wait puts a hire in jeopardy.
It cost $420 in government fees and lasts 5 years. Enlisting the help of The Migration Agency was $3,300 well spent.
Here’s our timeline:
07 Nov 2018 - Decided to become a sponsor + asked The Migration Agency for help.
27 Nov 2018 - I submitted the documentation TMA needed.
13 Dec 2018 - TMA sent a draft sponsorship for review.
18 Dec 2018 - Draft approved + submitted to the government.
31 Jan 2019 - Lookahead approved to sponsor!
Note: You could probably do this in less than 12 weeks. Our approval process spanned the Christmas period, and we took our time in getting documentation together because we had that luxury. It was nice to tell The Migration Agency that they didn’t need to hurry either.
